Star Wars Has Soared Past Avatar to Become the Highest-Grossing Film in North America

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The Force Awakens has attained what only used to be possible with Unobtanium. The long-awaited Star Wars sequel has finally passedAvatar’s $760.5 million domestic box-office record to become the highest-grossing film of all time in North America. More impressive: Avatar made that total over the course of a seventh-month run, while The Force Awakens lapped it up just 20 days into its release (who says it’s improbable to master skills really quickly?). Still, The Force Awakens has a lot of ground to cover to reach Avatar’s stunning $2.78 billion worldwide record, as it has made a total of only $1.59 billion so far — though that number will surely go up (though perhaps not massively) when the film opens in China on January 9. And, in another caveat, these numbers aren’t adjusted for inflation, which means that technically Gone With the Wind is still the highest-grossing U.S. film (with a box office that would equivalent to $1.7 billion today), while the first Star Wars is a runner up (at $1.5 billion). In that tally, The Force Awakens is currently a sleepy 21st place.